Judge Profile

David Scadden

"If you don't think he looks very happy, you should seen his reaction when I checked if he was entire!"

My wife Jacqui & I have been breeding Birmans under the Magwai prefix since 1985, after obtaining our first queen Ch. Shinoto Zamira from Rosemary & Barry Wilson in Te Aroha. We both originate in the Wairarapa in the sunny South Eastern part of the North Island of New Zealand.

We bred Birmans for a number of years in Lower Hutt and shifted back to the Wairarapa in 1990. A change of employment has seen us move to Rotorua, in the Bay of Plenty this year. One of the major tourist destinations in the country, the scenery is striking and we are very central to other cities and beautiful destinations.

We have bred a wide variety of Birman colours over the years - Sealpoint, Bluepoint, Chocolatepoint, Lilacpoint, Seal Tortiepoint, Blue Tortiepoint, Redpoint and Creampoint. We tend to specialise in the Chocolatepoint and Lilacpoint colours.

Our other great love are our Bengals, which we originally imported into the country in 1996 and are breeding under the LapLepid prefix. We have a wide variety of Bengals, including Brown Spotted & Brown Marble. These cats were from top overseas lines and we are delighted to have had the very first Gold Double Grand Champion Bengal - LapLepid Sandzabar. We do very limited showing and breeding now a days, with a young family and other interests to allow for.

We have three children - Rachel (16), William (14) and Jeremy (9), which keep both of us pretty busy. Other interests include good wine, genealogy, music and Ford Capri's.

I started judging in 1992 and reached the status of All Breeds in 2005, learning a great deal about all aspects of felines along the way.

I really enjoy judging and try to talk to and educate the spectators as much as possible on the various breeds. I feel that a cat show has to be entertaining and informative. I enjoy meeting fellow cat fanciers from around NZ and other parts of the world. I have had the privilege of judging all three National shows in Australia and New Zealand over the past couple of years and would love to be able to judge felines in other countries in the world.